


Bad Habits

by Aluxra



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Hint towards disassociation, Originally Posted on Tumblr
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-02
Updated: 2017-07-02
Packaged: 2018-11-22 10:23:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11378247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aluxra/pseuds/Aluxra
Summary: Jack developed a bad habit over the years while he was alone.





	Bad Habits

**Author's Note:**

> Cross posted from tumblr.
> 
> [Original posted:](http://aluxra.tumblr.com/post/143179877842/invisible) Apr 21st, 2016

Over the years, Jack had developed the habit – which usually only surfaced on bad days – where he would pretend everyone else was invisible rather than him. He didn’t know why he decided the logical solution to combat his invisible nature was to turn it back on everyone else around him, but then, logic and reason hardly applied to his situation.

It began quite early, when he’d keep turning at every mention of his name, only to be let down every time when he realised he was still invisible. When he wouldn’t move out of the way when people walked towards – and then through – him, expecting them to step around him. When he began speaking to someone only for them to walk away without any acknowledgement of being part of a conversation. When hope began to turn into desperation, and the desperation gave way to anger, and then bitterness.

He taught himself not to react to his name, not even his full name, since people only dismissed it as a fairy tale every time he heard it.

Then he taught himself how to tune it all out, the white noise of people walking and talking and living around him, embracing one silence in exchange for another.

Over the years, he developed the ability to blank everyone from his sight, similar to always seeing your nose but not registering it. It took him a while, but when he mastered it, it gave him some semblance of freedom he hadn’t experienced before. He didn’t have to worry about trying to make people see him: they were all invisible to  _him_. They didn’t exist. They were the fairy tale.

Did it help? Sure.

He could spend hours not really seeing people, existing solely by himself. He’d embrace the freedom whole heartedly to do as he pleased: freezing water pipes and icing roads and bringing in cold snaps and monstrous blizzards in the middle of summer. What did it matter? There was no one but him as far as he could see.

Except something always caught him out. Something would always catch his attention: a child’s laugh, a surprised scream, the screech of car brakes.

Then the illusion would shatter, and he’d be left standing in the middle of the chaos he’d brought to unsuspecting folks who were just going on about their day. He’d attempt to clean up his mess, but sometimes the damage would be done, and he’d hole himself away in some frozen corner somewhere far away from everyone and everything, refusing to leave for weeks at a time until the loneliness became too abhorrent, and he’d fall back into his attempts to be seen, only to fail, fail, fail, and then pretend everyone else was invisible.

Repeat.

* * *

Things had gotten better over the years.

He started having less bad days, after he became a Guardian and his believer base grew. He no longer had to pretend so much. The world wasn’t so empty anymore and he could enjoy the comfort of the company that he’d found. The loneliness wasn’t all consuming as it had been, even when it sometimes crept up on him when he least suspected it, when there was no reason to feel the desperation again to send him into that downward spiral, but he dealt with it as best as he could when it came on him –

A sharp crack startled him, his staff tipping at a sharp angle, the colour river of the Warren rising up to meet him. He twisted, got his feet under him and narrowly missed taking an impromptu dunk into the multi-coloured pastels swirling in the water. Stumbling back from the verge, he righted himself and flipped his staff up into his hand, twirling it around his fingers.  Leaning down, he picked up the boomerang lying at his feet and held it up to the approaching figure.

‘You looking for new target practice or something, Cottontail?’ he said, throwing his staff over one shoulder and smiling as he handed the boomerang back to Bunny.

‘Seems to be the only way to get yer attention, sometimes, Frostbite,’ Bunny replied, tucking it back into his bandoleer and scuffing Jack’s hair affectionately. ‘Ya gotta tell me a shortcut to the place where ye disappear to, make it easier to find ya.’

‘I’m not the one who disappears,’ Jack replied without thinking, and ducked his head to avoid Bunny’s inquisitive stare. He cleared his throat, and shook his head, finally raising his gaze with a smile in place. ‘So, what were you saying? Where do you need me?’

Bunny let it drop after a long moment, looping an arm around Jack’s shoulders and directing him to the googie fields for the next batch to be collected. Jack followed quietly, grateful Bunny always accepted his strange answers without pushing him for more.

Some habits were just hard to break.

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to visit me over on [tumblr](aluxra.tumblr.com)


End file.
